RCN plus digital cable box equals annoyance

[readsalot]

I have a dual-tuner TiVo box, and since I didn't need a cable box with RCN's basic cable, I had all the channels I wanted, and could record two shows at a time.

Starting on Dec. 15, we have to use a digital converter box to get RCN channels. I tried the setup for the first time yesterday, and failed because I hadn't done the extra wiring necessary. (I just used one extra cable to do wall-to-cable-box-to-TiVo instead of wall-to-TiVo.)

Looking at various diagrams and the forums on the TiVo site, it looks like I won't be able to use the second tuner after the 15th, because one TiVo can't control two converter boxes.

Am I right? What's everyone else doing? I can probably manage without a second tuner, but this is kind of irritating.

Comments

[twe.livejournal.com]

Comcast DVR. A single box does two channels at once, though it's not as nice an interface as Tivo. They do have a Tivo based tuner, but people have had only mixed luck with that.

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

I used to have Comcast when I was in Cambridge; that's why I switched to RCN when I moved to Somerville. RCN has a DVR option too, but it doesn't have as much capacity as a TiVo. Also, one day not long after I moved here I got a postcard from RCN, warning me that if I had one of their DVRs then all of my recorded shows would be erased on STATED_DATE. Which was two days before the postcard arrived.

[twe.livejournal.com]

Comcast has never erased all my shows. The interface is just more cumbersome than the Tivo one (or the Replay TV interface). I haven't run into a capacity issue with my generic Comcast DVR, except once when the old one got confused somehow by a marathon when I was out of town for a week and somehow recorded a bunch of 10-20 hour long Simpsons episodes.

Remind me tomorrow when you're here and you can play around with mine to see what you think of it. I initially chose this over buying a Tivo simply because it cost me less to change my mind, since I didn't have the cost of purchasing the box.

[the-gadgetman.livejournal.com]

You could replace the TiVO with a cablecard compatible one (series 3, don't know the exact model options).

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got that impression from the TiVo forums. I'm thinking about that, though it seems wasteful to get rid of a machine that I've had for less than 3 years.